102nd Plant Science Day celebrated in Hamden (video)

Ann DeMatteo, Register Staff

Published
12:00 am EDT, Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Edwin Salmon and his son Wyatt, 5, look through a microscope at a tick at the 102nd annual Plant Science Day at Lockwood Farm in Hamden. The event was sponsored by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. The Salmon's are from East Haven. Peter Casolino/New Haven Register less

Edwin Salmon and his son Wyatt, 5, look through a microscope at a tick at the 102nd annual Plant Science Day at Lockwood Farm in Hamden. The event was sponsored by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment ... more

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Edwin Salmon and his son Wyatt, 5, look through a microscope at a tick at the 102nd annual Plant Science Day at Lockwood Farm in Hamden. The event was sponsored by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. The Salmon's are from East Haven. Peter Casolino/New Haven Register less

Edwin Salmon and his son Wyatt, 5, look through a microscope at a tick at the 102nd annual Plant Science Day at Lockwood Farm in Hamden. The event was sponsored by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment ... more

102nd Plant Science Day celebrated in Hamden (video)

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HAMDEN -- Hundreds of spectators converged on Lockwood Farm Wednesday for the 102nd Plant Science Day, where folks learned the latest about pests, pesticides and produce, thanks to scientists and staff of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

Gale E. Ridge, Ph.D., was talking to visitors about the latest research in bedbugs.

While a commercial company has now placed the New Haven area in the top 10 of bedbug cities in the country, Ridge says that's favorable.

The efforts of public education and more awareness of bedbugs in the community is paying off, she said.

"It's good news. It means that the New Haven area is ahead of the game, and not letting social stigma or anxiety to be silent and allow bedbug populations to get out of control.

"New Haven is being bedbug proactive rather than reactive through community cooperation and better-trained professionals who have experience and know what to do," Ridge said.

Bedbugs are constantly present in multi-unit housing and emergency shelters because of the "continuous movement of people bringing bedbugs in," she said.

In the entomology laboratory of the experiment station in New Haven where Ridge works, she is studying the reproductive behaviors of bedbugs, from cradle to grave.

"We're looking for an achillies' heel," she said.

She said she mated 22 pairs of bedbugs starting last May and "this week, the last female stopped laying her eggs.

They're enjoying their retirement. The ladies are in a kind of menopause."

A German study from the 1930s showed that 540 eggs would be produced from a single female but two different kinds of bedbugs produce under 200 during a lifespan and a number are aborted or don't hatch, Ridge said.

Students from Lyman Hall High School's agricultural science and technology department had a table at the event, hoping to recruit students into their program. Students learn about agricultural equipment, large and small animals, biology and plant and food science.

"I really like all the hands-on opportunities," said Michelle DeFelice, 14, of Hamden.

"We take great pride in our program," said Samantha Griffing, 17, of Wallingford.

Visitors who strolled through the 75-acre farm at Kenwood and Evergreen avenues saw field plots that are planted and maintained by experiment station scientists.

Among the topics covered was an information table about the vegetation dieback in Connecticut salt marshes.

There was a discussion about the growth and control of non-native bamboos and the results of a review of blight fungi in the cankers on old American chestnut trees.

The station is now working on comparing the winter hardiness and blight resistance of American chestnuts and European chestnuts from Turkey.

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